The Space Race refers to the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union roughly from 1957 to 1975, involving their efforts to explore space with satellites and to eventually land a human being on the Moon and return him to Earth. Though its roots lie in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957. The term was coined as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural and technological rivalry between the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War. Space technology was a particularly important arena in this conflict, both because of its military applications and due to the psychological benefit of raising morale.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1562: The French Wars of Religion began with a massacre of Huguenots. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion)
1872: Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world, was established. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park)
1896: Ethiopia won the decisive Battle of Adowa over Italy, ending the First Italo-Abyssinian War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adowa)
1919: Japanese rule in Korea: The Samil Movement in Korea began with numerous peaceful protests nationwide, but was brutally suppressed by the Japanese police and army. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1st_Movement)
1947: The International Monetary Fund began its financial operations. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining." -- Jef Raskin (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin)